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Sunday, October 26, 2014

Comics Rant: Daredevil #165

Written by: Roger McKenzie

Art by: Frank Miller

Another night on the town known as Hell’s Kitchen for the Daredevil. An informant ruined some plans for him and Black Widow, but everyone knows what they say about that thing “Crime fighting before hoes.” That’s what they say, ain’t it? Anywho, the Devil hits a pool hall, and hits some of the thugs inside of it in order to get some information out of them. One of the lackys gets away and runs back to his bosses. Daredevil stays behind to fight off the rest of the thugs and Pike, the thug that got away thinks he’s not being tailed. Little does he know, Daredevil has eyes all over the city, regardless of having no use for his own. He follows the crook to his bosses who happen to be tied up in smuggling adamantium through a trusted manufacturer. Heather Glenn, daughter of a man who Matt Murdock wrongfully put in jail, is the one being used by these cronies to smuggle their metal. They’re tainting her name and she doesn’t even know it. When Daredevil shows us, she goes into a frozen shock and with Daredevil not being to prove anything about their smuggling, he has to leave without a single bust.

The lack of crime stopping is getting to Matt, its even taking its toll on him at work. He can’t seem to keep a clear head and to make things worse, Heather gets kidnapped by Doctor Octopus while doing some investigating of her own! When Matt gets word of Heather not showing up to a date with a mutual friend, he gets awfully suspicious and decides to go take a look. He doesn’t let Natasha come with him, telling her they can no longer be a team (And by team he means couple. No more Peg A in Slot B). The Devil hits up a wharf in New Jersey where the adamantium is being brought in from and of course, its littered with thugs and muscle for hire. Daredevil has no problem taking care of them until four metal arms come into the fray. Doc Ock yanks Matt into a warehouse and gives him a good smacking around. After a bit, he plunges his arms while wrapping Daredevil into the water. What Ock doesn’t know is that Daredevil can hold his breath for an extended period of time, even to the point where his heartbeat slows to where he may seem dead. When he’s finally fished out of the water by authorities later, they fall for it and think he’s dead. They’re instantly proven wrong, when Daredevil jumps up and runs off to finish his fight!

Back at the base of Ock’s operations, Ock does what every good villain does and reveals his motives to his hostage. He tells a story of a time when he was beat by Spider-Man and left for dead underwater, the same way he tried killing Daredevil. He was forced to destroy one of his arms which was attached to a sinking ship in order to try and survive. He passed out underwater and the other arms, having minds of their own, pull him out and take him to safety. Just at that moment, Daredevil comes in the room and a raging fight breaks out again. It’s a tough fight, with Daredevil having to really trust his senses dodging the arms all at once. Eventually, it proves too much for the horn head and he gets pinned to a wall by the Ock. Conveniently at this moment, Heather breaks loose from her binds and tries to attack Otto. This is the moment that’s most important out of the entire fight. He lowers his arms and frees Daredevil in order to deal with Heather and he escapes in front of a high voltage wall. He pulls a Spider-Man and yells an offensive quip at the multi armed menace and without thinking, he launches his arms at where the voice is coming from. A quick dodge and now Doctor Ocktopus is fried calamari. Fortunately, he didn’t die, but his arms whisked him away yet again. The bad guy didn’t win, but neither did the good guy. Daredevil runs over to a hurt Heather and she finally realizes that Matt’s loved her the whole time. In the background we see the Black Widow appear just to get clarity on the whole situation. Heartbroken, she leaves New York.

This was one of the better issues of the book. I noticed this was the first one where Millar contributed to the writing and scripting of the issue. It’s a small step that will eventually lead to Millar taking over the writing duties of this book. Get ready, its about to get dark. Until next time!